Visit the GRFU site

A teenager from England is close to breaking the world record for the youngest person to sail unaided across the Atlantic Ocean.

Michael Perham, 14, expects to reach the island of Antigua around New Year's Day after setting sail in a 28-foot yacht from Gibraltar on Nov. 18. Perham has received sponsorship from several companies and permission from his school to miss three weeks of classes, the Guardian reported Friday.

Perham's father Peter, an experienced yachtsman, is following about 2 miles behind him but cannot offer Michael any assistance according to the rules for setting the record.

Michael Perham spoke to Guardian reporters via satellite phone from his boat, the Cheeky Monkey, and told them he was "cruising along quite nicely." Perham has been sailing since the age of 7.

He spent Christmas alone and without presents but celebrated by firing off a flare, the Guardian reported.

Michael is raising money for charity and has so far raised £595, he said:

"I have been given the opportunity to fulfill my sailing dreams. Unfortunately there are lots of disabled people out there who have dreams, but can't fulfill them. Thats not fair.

Gibraltar beat Portuense on Sunday to take them level on points with the beaten side. The victory was a significant win for the local boys, as they had already lost their two previous encounters with the same team, at the beginning of the season.

The scoreline of 40-11 was a convincing victory, which must certainly bring a sweet taste to the mouths of the Gibraltar based side.

Gibraltar, are according to Portuense are a very difficult side to overcome at their Guadiaro pitch. Gibraltar will now certainly be looking to capitalise on this great victory, which will now greatly improve their chances of gaining promotion, back to the Primera Regional.

Officially, Spain says that Gibraltar's bid to become a full member of European soccer's governing body, UEFA, next month is not a political matter. Opposition is coming from the Spanish Football Federation, a nongovernmental body, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

But comments from the world of sports indicate how difficult it is to ignore the political pressures surrounding any effort by Gibraltar to assert a little sovereignty.

"This is part of a much bigger matter and could open up all sorts of political issues," Lars-Christer Olsson, chief executive of UEFA, said recently.

Gibraltar's bid was granted provisional approval last week by UEFA's executive committee. But the committee made clear that it was not endorsing the application, saying its hand had been forced by a court ruling in July ordering temporary approval so the bid could go before the UEFA congress for final consideration in January.

Joseph Nuñez, chairman of the Gibraltar Football Association, said that it was clear UEFA was buckling under pressure from the Spanish government to oppose the bid on political grounds.

"This is the best example I've ever seen of politics in sports," Nuñez said. "No one has ever raised any sporting objections to our application."

For about 300 years, Spain has argued that Gibraltar, a British territory on Spain's southern tip with a population of about 30,000, should be under Spanish control and has no right to sovereignty.

For years, said Peter Gold, a professor in Spanish studies at the University of the West of England, "Spain has tried to block Gibraltar from engaging in its own right in international sporting competitions." But he added that the Spanish opposition to Gibraltar's admission to UEFA had to do with internal political concerns as well as diplomatic ones. "It goes back to concerns that if Gibraltar joins, then Catalonia and the Basque country would try as well," he said.

Catalonia and the Basque country, regions of northern Spain with entrenched separatist movements, have increasingly sought to field national teams and to gain membership in international sports organizations, efforts that Spain's central government has strongly opposed.

The vote on full UEFA membership for Gibraltar is expected to occur in late January at a meeting of the UEFA congress in Düsseldorf.

The Spanish soccer federation has contended that the application should be rejected because of UEFA requirements that new members be recognized by the United Nations as politically independent nations. But the Gibraltar soccer association says that those requirements do not apply in this case because they were established after its application was submitted — in 1999.

"Gibraltar does have a leg to stand on," said Gold, alluding to the fact that the Faroe Islands, a Danish protectorate that has been a member of UEFA since 1988, has a level of political autonomy that is similar to Gibraltar's.

The Gibraltar government has refused to comment on the matter. "We do not want to mix politics and sport," Francis Cantos, a spokesman, said.

Gibraltar's national soccer team has a long history, going back more than 100 years, and it achieved some impressive results along the way.

"In 1949, our national squad drew 2-2 with Real Madrid," said Nuñez of the soccer federation. "Since then we have stagnated while the rest of Europe has progressed, because we have had no international competition open to us due to Spain's opposition."

The team's last appearance was in June, when it competed in a tournament with Tibet, Northern Cyprus and other teams not officially sanctioned by FIFA, world soccer's governing body. It finished third.

Nuñez admitted that the odds were against Gibraltar's winning UEFA approval in January. "It will be a very uphill struggle," he said.

MADRID, Dec 15 (Reuters) - At a time when many are worried about the rise of the couch potato, the British territory of Gibraltar appears to be bucking the trend and enjoying record levels of participation in sport.

Yet despite their success, the people who organise sport on the Rock are worried that a lack of recognition from international governing bodies could put the brakes on future development.

"Outsiders are often amazed by the high percentage of people who practise sport here," the chief executive of the Gibraltar Sports and Leisure Authority, Joe Hernandez, told Reuters.

"A key reason behind this growth was when Spain's General Francisco Franco closed the border between Gibraltar and Spain in the late sixties.

"There were very few sports available then, but with nothing to do, no access to the countryside, and the only way out on a boat, young people turned to sport for entertainment.

"The border was shut for 17 years and that forced its development. We now have 40 registered sporting bodies of which up to 25 are recognised internationally."

The Gibraltar government has backed this development, investing large amounts of money in state-of-the-art sporting facilities, which are 100-percent subsidised.

"We never need to advertise these facilities. We always have more demand than we can supply," Hernandez said.

Gibraltar has full or associated membership in a wide array of international sporting bodies including athletics, badminton, basketball, boxing, cricket, hockey, rowing, squash, swimming, table tennis, triathlon and volleyball.

FAVOURITE SPORT

But the favourite sport of Gibraltarians is soccer and that is where they have run into problems.

Last week, the Gibraltar Football Association (GFA) was admitted as a provisional member of UEFA, but it has taken nine years of petitioning and court cases to get to this stage. A final decision will be voted on at a UEFA Congress in January.

"Maybe there is no other place in the world where from a population of around 30,000 people you have so many participating in sports," GFA vice-president Albert Buhagiar told Reuters.

"In football, we have 31 registered amateur teams and around 80 junior teams."

The GFA, which was founded in 1895, boasts three divisions of amateur teams, who all play the at the Rock's Victoria Stadium, but Buhagiar is not about to claim these sides could compete with Europe's top clubs.

"It would be impossible for our teams to play in the Champions League," he said. "That's not why we want to join UEFA.

"We are more interested in joining for other reasons. To help the development of football among the children, to get support and training for our coaches and referees, and financial help in the form of grants from UEFA.

"Maybe in 15 or 20 years time we might have developed enough to be able to compete in the top competitions. Nobody wins from games where you watch England beating someone like us 5-0."

Many of the arguments put forward against Gibraltar's inclusion in bodies such as FIFA and UEFA are more do to with politics than sport.

FEARS

Spain, for example, fears that if Gibraltar was given recognition as a separate footballing entity it would undermine its claims to the territory.

There are also concerns that it would strengthen the arguments of Spain's own autonomous regions, the Basque Country and Catalonia, for their own separate national teams.

"Spain won't accept our recognition in UEFA as it would give us the status of a country," Buhagiar said. "The Spanish government, through the Spanish FA, is doing its best to influence a vote against us."

But it is not only in football where Gibraltar has encountered opposition. Its bid to join the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has ploughed a similar furrow to that of the UEFA bid.

The Gibraltar National Olympic Committee (GNOC) is suing the IOC through the Swiss courts for the right to be recognised. A decision is expected next year.

President of the GNOC Louis Triay told Reuters: "Legally we should win the case because we satisfied the rules that were in place when we first made our application.

"Under the old rules, places with a similar status to ourselves such as the old Hong Kong, Bahamas and Western Samoa were recognised, but not us."

Triay stressed that Gibraltar could hold its own on the international stage as it already does in sports such as sailing, hockey and shooting.

"The standard of sport is very high in Gibraltar," he said. "The people here are keen sportsmen. All we need is a sprinter, for example, to win something really big to put us on the map."

The last Team Snooker League night before the Christmas break resulted in a stunning victory for the Astoria A team over St Bernard’s Heineken; success for barentertainment.net over the Astoria Too and points for Team Queensway over a depleted Gibraltar Service Police team.

The game between the Mediterranean Rowing Club and the Cue Ball was postponed, by mutual agreement.

Down on Zoca Flank, in the St Bernard’s Catholic Social Club, home team St Bernard’s Heineken were beaten three frames to two by the Astoria A team.

Andrew Olivero, the saint’s star man, beat Adrian Navarro 78-30 but Guy Olivero lost 29-52 to the Astoria captain, Brian Garcia. This made it one all! The Astoria’s man-of-the-match, Errol Bolaños beat the saint’s captain, Adrian Wink, to make it two frames to one to the Astoria only for Mukesh Bakhru to level the frame score at two all by beating Alaine Navarro 53-23.Pepe Santos gained the win and the extra point for his team beating Harry Ward 47-35 in the final frame.

An excellent four points for the Astoria A team.

Meanwhile back up in the Astoria club the Astoria Too met a rampant barentertainment.net and went down five frames to nil.

Henry Bear, the Astoria’s captain, lost 6-84 to Yewhung Chin, the entertainer’s man-of-the-match and Dave Smith went down 19-68 to Francis Becerra. The Astoria’s star man, ‘Titch’ Olivero, was beaten 35-48 by Laurence Sisarello and Dougie Cooper was overcome, eventually, 29-65 by Julian McGrail. The last frame between Eddie Bear and the entertainer’s captain, Sean Galligan, was taken 64-18 by Sean.

Maximum points to the leaders!

Meanwhile, down in the ‘snook’ Team Queensway played the Gibraltar Service Police team and took maximum points from a curtailed game.

Kevin Dalli beat Leslie Bruzon 57-36 and Merv Padmore won against Alfred Becerra 46-29. The rest of the GSP team didn’t turn up leaving the remaining three Queensway players got a walk over and could not play.

The game between the Mediterranean Rowing Club and the Cue Ball is yet to be arranged.

League Standings 20th December

Team

P

W

FF

FA

Pts

1

Barentertainment.net

8

8

33

7

41

2

St Bernards

8

4

24

16

28

3

Cue Ball

7

5

22

13

27

4

Mediterranean Rowing

7

4

20

15

24

5

Team Queensway

8

3

20

20

23

6

Astoria Too

8

4

18

22

22

7

Astoria A

8

3

15

25

18

8

Gibraltar Service Police

8

0

3

37

3

The Highest Break

Yewhung Chin’s 40 in the league is still the highest break of the season; in all competitions.

GBSA Ranking List for January 2007

With the addition of the results from the St Bernard’s Famous Grouse Open Snooker Tournament the top twenty ranking players in Gibraltar are as follows.

Player

Points

Rank

Becerra Francis

103

1

Chin Yewhung

103

1

De La Rosa Peter

97

3

Moore Les

90

4

Bakhru Mukesh

89

5

Galligan Sean

68

6

Olivero Andrew

46

7

Newton Eddie Snr

33

8

Newton Eddie Jnr

32

9

Holmes Adrian

29

10

Ward Harry

27

11

McGrail Julian

24

12

Correa Nicky

19

13

Bensadon Peter

18

14

Wilding Larry

17

15

Cano Gareth

15

16

Wink A

15

16

Rooney Tom

15

16

Valarino Peter

14

19

Pembroke Kevin

12

20

Monteverde 'Monty'

10

21

Happy Christmas

The committee of the Gibraltar Billiards and Snooker Association wishes all its members and supporters the best of wishes for the holiday season and look forward to seeing everyone back at the tables next year.

by Lance Corporal Andrew PerezIn June the Royal Gibraltar Regiment's rowing team competed in the Joint Services Regatta at Dorney Lake near Windsor, the planned site of the 2012 Olympic rowing events.

The Regiment's crews won the two main events outright, beating teams from all Corps of the Army, and even the RN and RAF's first crews! They were named tri-service champions in the Eights and Coxed Fours.

In addition, Pte Podesta won the Novice Single Sculls race in a photo finish with the RAF's best. In the Pairs event, WO1 Bensadon and LCpl Barbara came a respectable second, beating RAF A, RAFB and the Royal Navy, the event being won by the an all-Army pair.

With very limited training due to regimental commitment the team ensured a good level of fitness was attained so to achieve a good standard in the event.

The Regiment's Senior Eights crew was hastily cobbled together, the oarsmen having never rowed together before. They were up against a crew from the Royal Air Force and the Army's 2nd crew. As the race started the teams were equal, but coming to the 500m mark the Army 2nd crew just edged in front. By this point most of the rowers were beginning to tire, so the RG crew decided to up the pace, putting pressure on the competition to keep up. The decision paid off, and by the last 200m the RG had crept ahead, the exhausted crew managing to hold on to take the win over the Army and RAF.

The most prestigious event in the Regatta was the Senior Coxed Fours. The Regiment rowed against the RAF, the UK Police Rowing Club and the Army over a 1000m sprint course. As the race started it was clear that it was going to be a tight race between the Royal Gibraltar Regiment and the rest of the Army, with these crews quickly pushing ahead of the RAF and Police. By the half way point the RG Royal Gibraltar crept ahead by half a length and managed to maintain their lead all the way to a strong finish.

The Regiment's rowing team always attends the Tri-Service Regatta at a disadvantage: The three services have 50,000 to 100,000 people from whom to select a team, and they can afford to write off eight men from operations and training in order to row as a crew for many months before the Regatta. The Royal Gibraltar Regiment cannot afford that luxury. Until the day that the crew flies to UK they are wholly committed to Regimental Duty and get little chance to train together until days before the event.

The giant slayers of Royal Gibraltar Regiment's Rowing team look forward to defending their title again next year against the three services, but for this year at least, they're still the Champions!

Coaching - 13/12/06A first Aid course will be held on the 9th and 11th of January 2007. Persons wishing to undertake the Level 2 course must have attended this course or hold a valid First Aid Certificate.

Level 1 Coaching Course will be held on the 12th, 13th and 14th January 2007 starting of Friday through to Sunday. Cost is £40.00 per person. The closing date for this course is the 20th December 2006. Persons wishing to take part please contact Adrian for registration and payment on telephone +350 58009113, Richard (+350 58654000) or Jeff (+34 600707877). Alternatively, you may also register on Mondays and Fridays at the GFA offices.Those persons interested in the course may wish to know that a meeting will be held at the Victoria Stadium rooms on Thursday 14th December at 6:30pm.

Level 2 UEFA C course will be held on 16th,17th,18th and 23rd,24th,25th February 2007. Each course will start on Friday through to Sunday for both weekends. Cost per person is £250.00.Please note that you must hold a valid Level 1 certificate to be allowed to participate in this course.

IMPORTANTPersons holding a junior team manager’s coaching certificate which is no older than three years are advised that they are required to renew their certificate by taking part in a Level 1 Coaching Course as from the beginning of next year.

One of the first volleyball teams that Antonio (Tony) Avellano coached was a group of 11-year-old and 12-year-old schoolgirls. That was nearly a quarter of a century ago but the girls stayed together as a team and, though today they are in their 30s, “are still going strong and winning titles”, Avellano points out with obvious pride.

It is this sort of dedication – not only in his own efforts, but the keen enthusiasm he inspires in others – that has earned the former fireman a string of accolades from Gibraltar’s sporting community as well as the affectionate title of “Mr Volleyball.” …although his favourite sporting activity is actually athletics, he admits over a cup of coffee in the VOX offices.

But though many of the youngsters whom Avellano trained and encouraged are still playing volleyball, support for the game is on the decline, he adds. “There are so many other things to interest youngsters – not just the boy-girl thing when they reach a certain age, though that also takes its toll, but television…cars…and they don’t want to spend their free time training.”

It is a complaint echoed by many coaches and administrators in other sports activities on the Rock…But Avellano - as a coach, administrator and the editor of Gibraltar’s only weekly magazine devoted to sport – probably feels it more strongly than most.

As a 16-year-old after leaving school, where he excelled at history and in English grammar, Avellano joined the old Gallianos Bank as a clerk and ‘stuck it out” for two years before enlisting to do his national service in the Gibraltar Regiment. But “for as long as I could remember”, Avellano had wanted to be a fireman and follow his father’s and a cousin’s footsteps into the City Fire Brigade.

And after his service with the Gibraltar Regiment that was what he did – gaining the award for the best recruit in his first year with the City Fire Brigade and developing an enthusiasm for “indoor sports” in the process. It is an enthusiasm that hasn’t left him for more than 40 years and that has kept generations of players on their toes.

“I wasn’t particularly outstanding as a sportsman, but I was moderately good at most sports I tried,” he runs a hand casually through grey hair and behind the heavy-rimmed glasses his eyes twinkle. “I suppose my real strength lay in my abilities as a coach and as an administrator. I’m actually something of a sports addict. ‘GibSport’ came about because of the local lack of sports publicity and reporting…My dad used to report on Gibraltar United football for the papers in 1946…”

Talking to Avellano is probably a bit like playing in a fast-paced game of handball or volleyball – both sports in which he became formidably involved - as the conversation bounces from one end of the court to an other and his express-train loquacity leaps from one topic to the next.

Firemen have to keep fit, yet their quarters don’t offer a great deal of open space for exercise so that games like handball and volleyball are popular among services in centres other than Gibraltar. And although he had been an enthusiastic track athlete and hockey player, when Avellano joined the fire service he helped develop its handball team and – “I’ve never been backward in coming forward” – soon took control not only of the fire brigade teams and of the Gibraltar Handball Association.

This became the base for the creation of the Gibraltar Volleyball Association which he founded in the mid-1970s - to the annoyance of local netball players, he recalls. “At the time I was criticised for attracting girls to our game…but we’re great friends really and the Netball Association invite me to all their do’s – even the all-women events,” he adds with a smirk. Then we’re off on a different tack…

“I was a firefighter for 30 years but had to retire 12 years ago after a mild heart attack; but fortunately I had already started “GibSport’ when I was approaching 40 and dreaded the time when my active sporting days would be over. So I had something to do…”

“But, yes, back in the 1970s we organized games for the Brigade volleyball team to play against the local services teams – the RAF and the RGP and the services fire brigade all had teams,” he recalls. “Then in April 1975 someone suggested ‘Why don’t we have a tournament?’ Even the Jewish Club entered a team, there were nine men’s teams and five girls’ teams, and literally hundreds of people turned up to watch us play.”

The success of the tournament led to the establishment of a league in which 19 men’s teams and 11 girls’ teams competed. “We played at St Anne’s School, thanks to Cecil Gomez who was the head there at the time. People started to turn up at the playground to watch and at times we had as many as 400 spectators for any important match.”

With 12 to 15 players in each team, Gibraltar suddenly boasted several hundred volleyball players and the need for the more formal administrative structure that an ‘association’ could provide became apparent.

A ‘caretaker’ committee which made the arrangements for a meeting of players was elected “from the floor” with Joe Benrimoj as president and Avellano as secretary.

“We arranged to have two divisions and in 1976 started playing at the Old Victoria Stadium,” Avellano says. “All the services had strong teams – the RN, the RAF and the army – and a year later we were playing against them and had developed a national team of which I was coach.

“We actually had quite a formidable national squad with quite a few tall players and though we lost games we were never seriously beaten by large margins. Later we played internationally, too, though we had to accept our limitations. There was tremendous enthusiasm, though - not the more casual attitude of some of today’s players. They trained four days a week and three hours or so each time.”

Avellano’s conversation takes another butterfly flutter and we switch to fast forward and the 1987 Island Games where the Gibraltar volleyball team he coached won a bronze medal. A year earlier he had attended a mini-Olympiad in Monaco where he was invited to speak at the conference.

“Although Spain vetoed Gibraltar’s membership, two of the smaller jurisdictions – Luxembourg and Malta – supported us and later we started the Small Nations Volleyball Association with six teams entering the European C Division,” Avellano was elected the first president of the new Association.

“While in the past there have been difficulties with Spain at a political level, our relationship with the Spanish Volleyball Association has always been a healthy one. In fact there are four Gibraltarians – including one of my daughters – currently playing in the Spanish National League.”

Avellano’s massive contribution to the development of volleyball on the Rock was recognised in 1981 when he was elected president of the local Volleyball Association – a post he held for the next 13 years.

“However I have never been particularly diplomatic and thought that volleyball in Gibraltar belonged to me – which of course it didn’t and doesn’t,” he says in a rare moment of modesty. “Tony Segovia headed the Association for the next five years, though I was re-elected in 1999 and continued as president until last year when Eddie Yome took over.” Avellano remains a vice-president.

Although the opening of the border in April 1982 created new opportunities for the Rock’s sportsmen and women to compete in a wider arena, Spain’s sporting authorities were reluctant to welcome Gibraltar to their courts and pitches. At the same time, by opening alternative avenues for recreation, the new freedom of movement enjoyed by the formerly “besieged” population led to “the decline of all sports”, according to Gibraltar’s “Mister Volleyball” Tony Avellano who is also proprietor and editor of the weekly magazine “GibSport.”

“Although it meant that teams could be brought in from Spain to compete here, for a long time there was no reciprocity,” he told VOX this week. “Support for hockey dropped off considerably and other sports suffered, too.”

This, however, was only one of the factors which has provoked what Avellano sees as a gradual decline.

“Kids are no longer prepared to train as they did in the old days, and they lack some of the discipline which was still apparent only a few years ago. To some extent, football remains one of the luckier sports in the sense that kids can kick a football around pretty much anywhere and from an early age. But even in soccer where there are about 800 kids playing in junior leagues by the time they are 16 they don’t want to spend time training.

“They think they are doing us [coaches and administrators] a favour – in fact it’s the exact opposite,” he adds. “there are too few skilled coaches in most sports so that they are all over-worked and under appreciated.”

With only one more snooker-playing week before Christmas we reach the new one third part of the league season.

The Astoria Too arrived in style taking all six points off the Gibraltar Service Police and jumping up to sixth in the league. The Cue Ball did it with a four frames to one win over Team Queensway, getting them up into second place. The Mediterranean Rowing Club also won four frames to one against the Astoria A team and keep fourth spot. While the leaders, barentertainment.net just managed to beat St Bernard’s Heineken by three frames to two on a black ball, despite Harry Ward’s fantastic efforts. Well played Harry!

Up the top of town on Flat Bastion Road, or the top of Morello’s Ramp, for the younger climbers, the Astoria Too beat another depleted GSP team.Antonio Cavilla, once again his team’s man-of-the-match, beat Chris Durante 65-25 and Eddie Bear won against Alfred Becerra, the GSP’s star man, by just 51-48; a very close-fought, black-ball decider.Dougie Cooper then beat Ivan Viñales 58-22 and with the remaining two GSP players not turning up, despite a long wait, unfortunately Alfred Becerra had to concede the last two frames.

However it is still six points to the Astoria Too guys.

Down in the ‘snook’, in Jumper’s Bastion, Team Queensway came up against a determined Cue Ball team.

Merv Padmore kept pace with Dylan Alvez through the reds, only for Dylan to run away to win on the colours, 41-15. Kevin Dalli was well beaten by Ernest Clinton 61-38 and Nicky Correa by, the Cue Ball’s man-of-the-match, Chris Shimidzu 74-36. Tom Rooney made a great frame winning come-back against Ian McIntosh; but Tom missed the black and Ian didn’t 59-47 to Ian. Team Queensway’s star man, Peter de la Rosa restored a little pride beating Jonathan Collado, 63-19; with a few well-timed and well-taken breaks in the twenties. Five points and second in the league for the Cue Ball!

Meanwhile, down in the harbour, the Mediterranean Rowing Club only just missed maximum points, beating the Astoria A team, but not Keith Correa, four frames to one.Wilfred Smart, among the newly-retired set, beat Elio Monteverde 41-31, in a very close-fought battle.

Up there on Devils Tower Road, in the Cue Ball entertainment centre, barentertainment.net beat just managed to beat challengers St Bernard’s Heineken.Yewhung Chin, the entertainer’s man-of-the-match, beat Adrian Wink 72-8; what can you do against a guy who scores a 40 and a 31 in the one frame? Francis Becerra beat Mukesh Bakhru 64-46. However Laurence Sisarello lost 60-62 to Guy Olivero, in a thrilling ding-dong battle on the black ball and Julian McGrail was beaten 28-56 by Andrew Olivero. At two frames all the fifth frame was in doubt when Adrian Holmes was called away and Sean Galligan had no opponent. However a phone call to Harry Ward and ill or not ‘supersub’ came flying, walking actually, to the rescue. Harry gave Sean a good game, despite his illness, but Sean sneaked a win on the black ball, just 58-54. Four points to the barentertainment.net.

Even in defeat, Harry Ward impressed every one present and is a model of attitude and positive commitment to all players, young and older. Well done Harry Ward!

League Standings 13th December

Team

P

W

FF

FA

Pts

1

Barentertainment.net

7

7

28

7

35

2

Cue Ball

7

5

22

13

27

3

St Bernards

7

4

22

13

26

4

Mediterranean Rowing

7

4

20

15

24

5

Astoria Too

7

4

18

17

22

6

Team Queensway

7

2

15

20

17

7

Astoria A

7

2

12

23

14

8

Gibraltar Service Police

7

0

3

32

3

Fixtures for Wednesday 13th December Round 8This Wednesday, the last snooker night before Christmas, sees The Astoria Too at home on Flat Bastion Road to barentertainment.net and St Bernard’s Heineken welcome the Astoria A to Zoca Flank. The Cue Ball plays the Med on devil’s Tower Road and Team Queensway are against the GSP in Jumpers.

The Highest BreakYewhung Chin’s 40 in the league is now the highest break of the season, in all competitions.

Famous Grouse Open Singles Snooker Tournament FinalIn the last game of the St Bernard’s Famous Grouse Open Singles Snooker Tournament, on Monday last, neither Francis Becerra nor Yewhung Chin wanted to lose.

What promised to be a feast of potting, very quickly became, to the purist’s eye, a magnificent competition between two very good players; both playing very safely.

For 45 minutes the players struggled manfully not to let the other ‘in’ and they succeeded! Neither could pot more than two balls. Just once Yewhung potted four to get 13 points. But Francis couldn’t do that and a dour, difficult frame went to Yewhung 57-33. First blood to Yewhung!

The second frame reversed the procedure and Francis managed to dominate the safety play and come out winner by 55-17, in just 26 minutes. One frame each!

In a tense 35 minutes, Yewhung suddenly remembered what it was all about and started the third with a very commanding 32 and later a 14 to take the frame, 57-18 and the lead two frames to one.

Francis wanted the fourth frame. Yewhung made a 24 but Francis still led by one point after the reds. Yewhung then a 20, taking yellow to pink, to come from behind and take the frame 59-40; giving him a three frames to one lead. Now Yewhung needed just one more and Francis had to take all remaining three frames.

In an even tenser fifth frame Francis held his own and the lead occasionally. But Yewhung took the last red and a yellow, then the yellow and green, to give him a two point lead on the brown ball. A very lucky brown ball, followed by the rest of the colours, piece meal, gave Yewhung the frame, at 59-32 and the match at four frames to one.

Johnnie Duran, the President of the St Bernard’s Catholic Social Club, congratulated all the players who participated in the tournament and the referees for their control of a very entertaining four weeks of snooker. He, especially, thanked the sponsors, Anglo Hispano and congratulated;